With the size of Pairi Daiza and the number of animals to see alongside the pandas, I really think the best way to have a great experience here is to take advantage of the Pairi Daiza Resort, staying on site and getting the most out of multiple days. Previously my mum and I have stayed in a polar bear room for 1 night in 2022, this time we wanted to try out a different theme, as soon as I saw the opening of The Farm House Lodge, I knew I wanted to stay in this one! The farmyard area was here on my previous visits, however this area also housed the old entrance and some staff facilities if I remember correctly, but now it’s all for these animals. The animals are (mostly) free roaming, so there are double-gates to get in and out of the farm, the lodges are completely located inside here – lets get in and take a look:
There are 22 rooms available here in a range of layouts, both double and family rooms, with or without mezzanine level, and also accessible rooms. We stayed in room 22, this was an accessible room as my mum needed the accessible bathroom. The room was the first one in the entrance, but this was after a very nice entrance sitting area where there were seating areas and also a vending machine for any soft drinks you might like to buy for the evening in the room (water, coke zero and fanta). The room itself was huge, plenty of space for a wheelchair, although we didn’t bring one – if staying for 2 nights I think we would have looked to rent one. The beds were twin sized, and incredibly comfortable, I had a great nights sleep here, at least until 5AM when the animals started waking up, I didn’t think about cockerels when I thought it was a great idea to pick a farm room! The was a seat with a coffee table on one side, and also a sofa on the other side of the room – both low so transfer from a wheelchair would have been ok for my mum. In the main entrance of the room was wardrobe and storage space, alongside tea/coffee facilities and a mini fridge. The bathroom was also very spacious, with rails at both the toilet and in the roll-in shower, and a lowered sink unit which also had space underneath for a wheelchair to roll up to – we didn’t take a wheelchair, but my mum needed the seat in the shower and also used one rail by the toilet. She had no complaints with the bathroom (or any part of the room actually)! Each room also has a terrace with table and chairs, accessible by double doors from the room, with an outlook over the whole farm – from here the animals come right up to you, and even onto the terrace, the rabbits would have gotten through the fence and we had a duck nesting on eggs in the planter at the side of our terrace! The resort provides one bag of animal feed per room, so you also have the opportunity to feed the animals – the feed is suitable for all animals, although it seemed like a certain few were boisterous and were getting most of it! I really enjoyed doing this and it was a fun afternoon activity before going for our own dinner. As this was our second stay in the resort, we were also given a note thanking us for another trip and gifted a box of Belgian biscuits, this was a very sweet touch.
With the stay you also get a buffet dinner and breakfast included, we ate in the Izba again – I found breakfast better than dinner, but I’m more a breakfast person than savoury-dinner person, so that’s a me thing! And there are also special breakfast-timed animal feedings as well, the times are given at check-in, and this time we went to see the brown bears get their breakfast, that was amazing!
With the new entrance building as well there is a dedicated resort section, here you check in, get all your park information, including your access bands which act as your ticket and room key, and also leave your luggage and it will be taken to your room for you. You also leave the luggage in your room at checkout, and it will be returned to the entrance for you to pick up on your way out. This is very convenient.
Onto the animals! I really liked that at the entrance to the farmyard there was a sign with all the different types of animals you can see here – there were the typical petting farm animals like goats and sheep, and rabbits and guinea pigs, but also wallabies, Patagonian maras and a wide range of birds (ducks, geese and chickens in a range of breeds). As well as the animals you could touch, on the outskirts of the area were those that weren’t in the specific petting farm area, so more goats, pigs, ponies and alpacas/llamas and I enjoyed seeing these animals just as much too. The goats were super funny to watch, they were quite cheeky and would do anything to get the animal feed from you when you went out onto the terrace with the bag – they could hear the rustle of the paper from afar! In the evening after dinner we were outside with a few other people and one goat really took a liking to one lady’s dress, he was quite insistent on tugging at the hem, then when he got bored of that he spotted the strap of my mum’s walking stick and wanted to chew on that! The wallabies also seemed more active in the evening, the albino one with the baby were adorable, and while the baby tried to have some independence, it was soon chased down by mum! The rabbits were also very cute, would have loved to have petted some of these, but they were definitely more hesitant of people and preferred to be left alone. And the guinea pigs – what cuties! There were so many of them, and just when I thought I’d counted them all, a few more would appear out from the house or under their feeding trough, I especially liked the really fluffy ones, some of them have particularly luscious locks of fur =)
